Donald Trump says Lara Trump will ‘probably’ not be Marco Rubio’s Senate replacement

Dream team? Image via AP.

President-elect Donald Trump isn’t leaning on Gov. Ron DeSantis to pick Lara Trump for a soon-to-be-open Senate seat.

“I probably don’t (expect it), but I don’t know. Ron’s doing a good job and it’s his choice. Nothing to do with me,” President-elect Trump told reporters in Palm Beach.

He noted that Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law and the recent former Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee, “could have run for the Senate in North Carolina” and won, but she wanted to “focus on her children.”

Lara Trump has been direct in saying she would like the appointment.

“If I am appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and he feels that I’m the right fit to take over the U.S. Senate seat for Marco Rubio, those are big shoes to fill, but I would take it very seriously,” she said at The Washington Post’s 2024 Global Women’s Summit last month.

Prior to that, she said very similar things on Fox News during a series of interviews. 

She insisted she would be “honored” to serve and would “love” to be Senator, noting that she’d lived in Florida for the last three and a half years as proof that she knows the state, and crediting DeSantis with her being in Florida to begin with. 

“He’s part of the reason that Eric and I moved to Florida. He’s done such a great job,” she said last month on “Fox & Friends First.”

The President-elect is bullish on the exiting Senator, Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, describing the Miami Republican as a “star,” while saying his exit “leaves a vacancy in Florida, and Ron’s going to have to make that decision, and he’ll make the right decision.”